At it again...

School has started back up and that can mean only one thing: despairing over homework.  Of course this is only natural so there is nothing new to report.  I've only three courses on my plate for my second and last semester abroad here in Giessen, Germany.  Let's see:

Methods of Atomic Physics - a romp through practical applications of knowledge of atomic physics.  Things like tumor detectors and busters, energy from nuclear fusion and fission, types of radiation detection and so on.  Taught by an instructor from last semester and the class size is small.  Four of us non-primary-German speakers in the room means a vote by the German students have this class being taught in English.  Interesting.

Experimental Physics 6 - Atomic, particle and astrophysics.  That's all I know at the moment since this was a late addition to my schedule and I haven't been to a lecture yet.  The first homework assignment though is about particle accelerators so...yeah.

Quantum Mechanics - that which I have feared the most.  The very nearly non-intuitive subject that haunts my dreams.  I will be trying desperately to approach this class purely from a mathematical standpoint.  I also must pass this class since I do not want to take it again in the States.  Taught by the exchange coordinator who also taught our Nuclear Astrophysics course last semester.  He, let alone the subject matter, are nearly impossible to understand.  I do wish I had taken more German before coming here, but alas I did not know I'd be coming until 5 months before I left.  

That's all I'm taking.  On a lighter note I got a frisbee today so that I can relax outside in my own way.  Jeff has already promised to play with me.  I imagine calling him up on the ol' Skype and saying, "I need a break from homework.  Let's play."  In other news, the beer gardens are open again and spring is in full swing.  Cheers!

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Part 2

The final day and associated times spent in Amsterdam were ones of wandering and walking.  Rae and I both like markets.  We are also both interested in living on a boat and/or houseboat someday.  Luckily, Amsterdam had both of these items in plenty.  We spent the third day visiting several open markets, one of which was devoted to nothing but tulip bulbs and other assorted flowers and bulbs.  Strangely enough the price decreased as you approached the center and then increased again as you headed for the other end.  So if you were patient and could stand to pass through about a thousand people before buying your tulips, you could save a euro or two.  Rae had done her research and there were about 3 different markets she wanted to hit.  Our next stop took us beyond the tulip market to a very long stretch of stalls that was probably 3 or 4 city blocks long.  

This really long market had everything!  It was snack time.  Raw fish on a bun with onions and pickle was the appetizer followed by fries with ketchup and mayo with onion.  For later, we picked up some more cheese and an entire smoked mackerel.  No joke, the whole fish.  The guy picked it up, slapped it in a newspaper, bagged it and handed it to us.  Good times.  Now every market we've been to has it's own peculiar quirk.  It may be a layout choice, it may be the times they're open or it might be a particular kind of stall that shows up.  Here in Amsterdam it seems the bath and body section of your local Walmart can only be found in the outdoor market because that's the only explanation I have for why stall after stall would be shampoos, conditioners, razors, hair coloring kits and a whole assortment of bath and body products.  It never ceases to amaze me the oddities that markets have.  If I ever design one, I'll have to remember to throw in a subtle strangeness.  

After all this wandering through crowds of people, Rae and I headed back to our home base and dropped off the wares we had purchased.  Then we went out to the neighborhood of Jordaan and simply walked around the canals looking at the converted house boats.  It was so nice and so peaceful.  There weren't a lot of bikes or cars or even city sounds for that matter.  We walked for hours away from all the people and talked and talked.  So many of these houseboats were converted freighters or haulers.  Now they haven't moved in years.  Some of the little coots (a duck like creature is my best description) have gathered dozens of twigs, sticks and other rubbish together to make their nests on the canal wall side of these houseboats.  The turbulence from passing canal tour boats is lessened there.  One such nest already had the couple exchanging turns on 7 eggs.  It was pretty adorable seeing them interact.  We sat and had a beer for a while and watched them.  

All in all, our final time in Amsterdam was spent enjoying the food and the atmosphere of the quieter neighborhoods.  Many more chocolate covered waffles were consumed along with more fries, bread, cheese and beer.  We caught the train for Frankfurt and headed home with 4 beers and 2 packs of stroop waffles.  I can safely say that we should have brought more stroop home with us.

Leiden, The Netherlands: A Cyclist's Look

It seems that everybody in the Netherlands bikes.  They have special lanes for bicyclists and heaven help you if you're in their way.  Well, that's not quite true.  They are very nice people and I only heard the ding of a bell a few times.  I think it is terrifying because of the speed with which they zip around.  Their presence goes before them and makes me run out of the way.  But I digress.  On Rachel's birthday we joined the ranks of the cyclists and went out into the country.  She really wanted to see the tulip fields, of which the most famous is Keukenhof 17 km outside of Leiden.  Normally people take a bus to get there but we aren't normal.  7.50 € later and we're riding through some neighborhood towns on the way to Keukenhof.

Beautiful scenery, quaint and quiet suburbs, lush gardens, ducks, chickens, and bees all were sights to see.  A little windy on the way out there but that just meant it would be smooth sailing on the way back.  We only had a general map of the area consisting of 120 square kilometers give or take.  It definitely did not show well defined roadways let alone bike paths so we merely followed road signs to each town listed between Leiden and Keukenhof on the map.  Once we reached one town, I looked on the map for the next closest town on the map and said "keep an eye out for such and such because that's next."  It worked and though it wasn't exactly as scenic as I'm sure it could have been, our path eventually took us to the fields.

Unfortunately we were either too early or too late for a vast majority of tulips.  Many many daffodils were there though and were sprouting in vivid colors.  Hyacinth were also blooming creating an aromatic sensation on my nostrils.  Though there were only a few tulips it was still beautiful to see.  After about 17 km we wound our way off the main streets following signs towards the main entrance of Keukenhof.  We had no plans to go inside since we didn't want to spend the 14 € on the entry fee.  We stopped next to some fields in the woods and had some lunch.  We brought along our cheese, bread and apple repast that had worked so well the night before.  After that, we continued along and instead of doubling back, we made plans (based off of the vague map) to come back via a main roadway that passed different towns.

The way back was much more off the beaten path than the road we took to get out there.  Several times the bike path disappeared altogether and we trusted that by making our way through an apartment complex's parking lot we would find our way could continue.  It did, but then the road was under construction and we had to take a detour that involved going along a one way road that was now being used as a two way path for both cars and bikes.  Several times I feared I'd get driven off the road into a canal.  Also on our way back was a farm with Shetland ponies and a Wallaby.  Kind of odd to run across but I would love to have a Wallaby.  They are incredibly cute and I don't mind saying that.

All in all we biked for about 4.5 hours over 35 km with absolutely gorgeous weather.  Once we dropped off the bikes, we decided that we would have Rae's birthday dinner at a pancake house we had spotted during our wanderings of Leiden earlier that day.  Take a look at the picture and tell me this pancake doesn't look amazing!  Mine was brie, honey and bacon while Rae's was apple, bacon and cheese.  The pancake itself was flavorful in itself but the toppings took it over the edge.  It is safe to say it is on the 'Top 5 Things I Ate in Europe' list.  The waitress who helped us was very nice and enjoyed how much we enjoyed the pancake.  

We took the train back to Amsterdam and swung by the amazing beer store (more on that later) and grabbed a few beers.  We ended the day sitting on a bench near the canal drinking a beer and just being together.  Happy Birthday Rachel!

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Part 1

Amsterdam is filled with a lot of nice people.  Most everybody speaks English there and it is really easy to get comfortable and adjusted to the city.  The city has been called the Venice of the North and I have to agree.  Only they should have said the much nicer Venice of the North.  Having just recently been to Venice I can say that Amsterdam is both cleaner and prettier than Venice (in my humble opinion).  Although the trees were not leafing we were still able to enjoy the sites of the area.  

We were able to find some deals for the high speed train and made it to Amsterdam from Frankfurt in only 4 hours.  It was early afternoon and we immediately attacked the town.  I think we wanted to get some parts of the city out of the way the first day since they were the more touristy and we dislike multitudes of people.  However, the first thing we did was to find a pub near a canal so that we could have a beer.  With the sun out and warming everything we spotted two chairs (no table) and pounced on them.  We had good timing and the server was there immediately.  We ordered our beer and then moseyed the chairs right to the edge of the canal with everybody else behind us and out of view.  For the next hour and a half we sat with our feet nearly dangling over the edge watching canal cruise boats go by us.  It was a pretty good start to a stay in a city.  Four or five more hours of exploring and we wind up back at our place laden with three kinds of cheese (sambal, smoked and hollandaise mustard), bread, apples and chocolate covered pearl sugar ladened waffles.  

Our lodging was one of the cheapest places we could find and it wasn't too bad.  It was in the red light district but that just gave it some character.  It was an extremely narrow building, as they all are, and the room was noticeably listing to one side, which was a little weird.  The ceiling was shorter than I am and had beams so I was always watching my head.  

The next day was Rae's birthday and we began by heading back to the train station to grab a train to Leiden, a good sized town 40km south of Amsterdam.  It is the jumping spot for getting to the tulip fields so it made Leiden a pseudo-tourist town.  Our plan was to bike ride to the fields but the weather was very cold and cloudy dreariness.  I had wi-fi in our room though so I saw the prediction that by noon it would be partly cloudy and warmer.  So we had coffee and explored Leiden for a few hours in the morning.  I exercised all my will power to the weather and blue skies started peeking around 1100 and by 1145, it was nearly completely clear!  We were very happy we decided to not wait for the weather to clear in Amsterdam first.  We finished our wanderings of Leiden and had a pre-bike ride beer at this cool restaurant with a cat.  Then it was off to the train station to put a deposit on some bikes.  More to come...

Finally it begins again

So I never mentioned on here that I was going to be visiting Amsterdam last week.  The whole trip came up quite suddenly in fact.  It was Rachel's birthday and she is Dutch.  Two and two together mean we went to Holland for her b-day and it was awesome.  She loved it and I loved it and I will write about soon.  Lots of good things to tell about that place.  

Meanwhile, school has finally started again this week.  It's about time is all I can say on that.  Two whole months off is not fun if you don't have money or things to do.  I can't tell you how often I've missed my 'library' from home.  My good friend Trevor sent me a box with, I think, 7 books in it and I've mowed through nearly all of them.  But that is beside the point now.  Now we have school and homework again so hopefully I won't be as lazy as I have been.  Also with the weather turning nice again, there will be more time for reading outside, and that is fun with any kind of book.

More on Amsterdam soon.  Promise.

Time has Velocity?

The period between school semesters is fraught with peril.  It would be like a ship of the line (circa 1857) traversing a shoal known for harboring Reefs of Peril®.  If you don't keep your mind active it's going to crash.  In an effort to stave off the intake of water followed by certain ingestion by a shark I have been reading The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene.  It is a good read but somewhat slow at times.  I did want to share something briefly that I came across and in conjunction with a previous post I did on time travel.  Greene was explaining relativity and the effect that moving clocks run slower.  I have often times had difficulty with these subjects since I have trouble identifying who the observer is at the moment.  If you were to look at a situation from the point of view of the other guy (the moving object), you would have a completely different problem.  Anyway, this is not about that.

The thing that Greene mentioned was about how time and space work.  The top speed in the universe (so far) is lightspeed (that speed from Star Wars that would make the galaxy the size of our solar system).  Also remember that one moves both through 3D space and also through time from one second to the next.  Greene wrote that one's total velocity through space-time is equal to the speed of light.  Wha?  Your speed through space plus your speed through time is equal to the speed of light.  Basically, if you're sitting still and not moving at all your speed would be 3 times 10 to the 8 meters per second.  Alright?  Now, start moving.  Since your total speed in space-time can't exceed lightspeed, some of your velocity in time must be transferred to your motion in space!  Whoa!  Thus your watch starts going slower.  Get going faster and faster and a crap-ton of your temporal velocity gets stolen by the space motion.  That's why if you approach lightspeed in your ship, turn around after a  few years (by your clock!) and come back to Earth that you'll find many a decade have gone by (according to the Earth clocks).  I believe the real explanation would be nothing like this, but it was the best description for the reason moving clocks go slower that I've ever seen.  How cool, eh?

Disclaimer: After writing this post I notice that I used speed and velocity, but being too lazy to fix it, know that I meant velocity with every instance of the word speed.